Ohio State’s solar decathlon team has finished its first-ever US Departement of Energy Solar Decathlon Competition ranked in tenth place. Here is a breakdown of the team’s success in each category:

1. Architecture – 8^th place. 82 out of 100 possible points

2. Market Viability – 4^th place. 91 out of 100 possible points

3. Engineering – 10^th place. 84 out of 100 possible points

4. Lighting Design – 16^th place. 57.75 out of 75 possible points

5. Communication – 5^th place.  64.5 out of 75 possible points

6. Comfort Zone – 4^th place. 82.36 out of 100 possible points

7. Hot Water – 16^th place.  62.25 out of 100 possible points

8. Appliances – 18^th place. 51.275 out of 75 possible points

9. Home Entertainment – 17^th place. 60.492 out of 100 possible points.

10. Net Metering – 7^th place. 101.323 out of 150 possible points

Team Germany won the overall decathlon, followed by the University of Illinois and Team California.  More information on scores in all 10 decathlon competitions can be found here: http://www.solardecathlon.org/scoring/index.cfm

Results for the first two major juries in the "subjective contest" categories are in. Here is a recap of each, including the description of each contest from the Solar Decathlon website.

Architecture - 82 Points (8th Place)

Teams are required to design and build attractive, high-performance houses that integrate solar and energy-efficiency technologies seamlessly. A jury of professional architects evaluates team construction documents and the final constructed house. It evaluates three main factors: architectural elements, holistic design, and inspiration.

Deanna Hinkle, Steve Winter, Dave Nedrow, Jared Lairmore, Courtney Keys, and Neal Clements were the team members involved in the architectural jury presentation this past Saturday. The main points of emphasis the team focused on were the house as a reinterpretation of the American living condition, the manner in which the house references Ohio's heritage, thoughtful integration of architecture with passive and active systems, and adaptability of space, specifically the way in which the user interacts physically with the house. The most enjoyable aspect of this tour was demonstrating the operable features for the jury, as this interior manipulation is not possible during larger public tours. All three of the jurors were engaging and asked great questions. Unlike many "architectural juries" where the format is a bit rigid, this presentation ended up striking a nice balance between a relaxed presentation and casual conversation. In the end, we're very pleased with the final result and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Market Viability - 91 Points (5th place: tied with Minnesota and Germany)

Teams build their houses for a target market of their choosing. They are then asked to demonstrate the potential of their houses to keep costs affordable within that market. A jury of professionals from the homebuilding industry evaluates how well suited the house is for everyday living, determines whether the construction documents would enable a contractor to construct the house as intended, and assesses whether the house offers potential homebuyers within the target market a good value.

Jared Lairmore and Deanna Hinkle began by explaining the house as a reinterpretation of the way in which the typical American house allocates space and the manner in which one interacts with their physical environment. Key points of emphasis were the way in which the occupant can easily adapt the space to a variety of situations and overall livability. Steve Winter and Neal Clements followed up with a taboo topic for many designers (money) and explained how the house uses readily available, off-the-shelf building components and prefabrication as a means of keeping costs down. They also noted that the house uses typical construction techniques optimized for efficiency in order to engage the existing workforce of residential contractors. Kurtis Meyer and Lucas Dixon finished by explaining how the house can be utilized as an infill project in several Columbus, Ohio neighborhoods as well as in less dense development. They also noted how the house addresses the two fastest growing market segments in central Ohio, those being young professionals and empty-nesters.

We'd like to thank the jurors for each contest for their time and interest. It is evident that the contest organizers did their homework in selecting qualified, engaging sets of jurors and we enjoyed the interaction during our presentations. Other contests are ongoing and the overall rankings change daily, so please check the DOE Solar Decathlon website for updates. You can access current standings at http://www.solardecathlon.org/scoring. Also, for more information on specific jury members, please visit http://www.solardecathlon.org/juries.cfm.

Today several hundred students rallied behind Solar House 1 to send her off in style.  The Central Ohio Brass Band and Brutus Buckeye, seen just to the left of President Gee, contributed a festive spirit.  After remarks by Interim Dean of Engineering Greg Washington, Knowlton School of Architecture Director Ann Pendleton-Jullian, our dear President Gordon Gee, and three students, we all joined in the first verse of Carmen Ohio.  It was really wonderful to see all the students who came out to support us!

-Erin

As of day there are only 25 days left before Solar House 1 is Decathlon bound!  To keep you informed of our final preparations, send-off events, and the Solar Decathlon itself, the blog will have a new entry everyday from now to the close of the competition. 

The House Today

  To start off this countdown right, not to mention the football season, our Ohio State Buckeyes triumphed over the strong opposition of the U.S. Naval Academy's Midshipmen.  Just a few hundred feet away from this heated competition was our own contender, Solar House 1, awaiting the Solar Decathlon. 

As you can see, the house now has solar panels!  Additionally, our house is insulated, floored, and generally shaping up to be a lean, mean, green, holistically livable, wholly sustainable, energy-generating machine.   That said, we should take a look at the heart of our energy solution, the Sanyo bifacial photovoltaic panels. 

The solar cells are built on a transparent base.  Which is not only aesthetically cool, it is a great advance in the efficiency of crystalline solar cells.  Sunlight that hits the house through our around the arrays will be reflected back up by the white roof membrane and hit the back of the solar cells, which work just as well as the front.  This means that our house, along with others that adopt this technology, will be able to generate more electricity and for a longer period in the day than has been possible before. 

We're really excited about this. 

Check back in tomorrow, to get a preview of upcoming events!

Click on the link below to download the OSU Team's April 2009 Newsletter.

Get caught up on house construction, learn about some cool events that our team members have been to, and see where we'll be next!

As many of you are aware. Today, March 28th, from 8:30 to 9:30 the world celebrates earth hour. We join together and turn off our lights for one hour to raise awarness about global climate change. Please join the team in this event. More information can be found here. http://www.earthhour.org/about/

Today we received a really lovely note from one of our major sponsors, Integrys Energy Services, that we wanted to share. Hopefully, the warm thoughts below will make you smile too.  -Erin

Dear Solar Decathletes (and their faculty supporters),

Thank you for having us with you last week, to bask (if not in the sun) in the creative energy that you emit as you undertake a host of technical and organizational challenges to be completed in the remainder of the academic year (plus, evenings, weekends, and probably in to the summer).

Since I live in Ohio too, and work for a company with ambitious solar projects of its own, I am often questioned on how a cloudy state like Ohio can host effective solar projects.   What the questioners often fail to realize, is that the spirit of environmental stewardship is not about how much resource you have, but about how well you make use of it.

Here in central Ohio , we may be a little poor in sunshine, but we have the great fortune of being illuminated by over 40,000 individulas from all over the world.   These students and faculty members at OSU come here because they believe that a well-informed mind is a necessary advantage as we try to tackle new problems with new approaches.

For my part, and on behalf of Integrys, our investment in the OSU solar decathlon team is our vote of confidence that our collective interests are best served by supporting the creativity of youth who have not yet inherited our outdated notions.   Under the tutelage of faculty not beholden to our commercial interests, we hope that you will contribute; to our industry, creativity and knowledge; and to our planet, health and prosperity.

Thank you , and good luck!

Charles A. Koontz
General Manager
Renewables, Efficiency, and Conservation
Integrys Energy Services

We had a great meeting last with Hull & Associates. We learned alot about all the great work they are doing and made some great contacts withing the community. We look forward to continuing to work with Hull & Associates in the near future. Thanks to all those that made it happen!

~Lucas

This Friday ten members of the team are headed to DC to attend NREL's pre-event workshop.  We'll represent areas such as Instrumentation, Safety, Communications and generally go over rules issues with various staff members as they move around from team to team all day Saturday. While we're there, we're also going to check out some of the local resources for food, plants, lodging, and construction supplies.  On Sunday we'll go down to the National Mall to check out the site with some of the organizers and discuss logistics and then drive back so that we can be back in class on Monday.

-Erin

As Ohio State's autumn quarter winds down we are ready to make great strides in two very important aspect of our project. First, December 16th is the deadline for Construction Documentation. We will submit our drawings and project manual to NREL electronically and wait for their feedback. Secondly, with classes over we can really get going on construction. As you may have seen the trailers are on site, leveled, and ready to go. We are waiting on our first lumber delivery and some free time to really get things kicking. We hope to make great progress during break.

P.S. Our WarmBoard delivery has arrived and is awesome stuff. It is part of the radiant floor system and will be key to keeping the house toasty all winter long. Special thanks for this great in kind donation.

~Lucas

Exciting news on the construction front. We have made great strides to put up a construction camera to view our progress online. Special thanks to Derek, OIT, Facilities and RPAC staffers. We have also received final confirmation that our trailers will arrive this Saturday. Wahoo. This comes after tons of hard work from Steve and the entire design team. It certainly will be something to have the first pieces of the house at Ohio State.

~Lucas

The Construction trailer arrived at our build site last Thursday. It looks great with two solar panels collecting the power to build our house! Special thanks to Roger Beck and the HomeBASE program for allowing us to use the trailer. It is awesome to see something physical on the site--we are one step closer to D.C.!

~Lucas

We have been featured in The Lantern (Ohio State's campus newspaper) as one of the presenters in the Ohio Solar Tour.   Part of the tour will be taking place on campus this Saturday:

Click here to read the article

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For more information about the Central Ohio Solar Tour, download the brochure.  We hope to see you this weekend!

The Minnesota Daily has written an article describing the University of Minnesota team's efforts with a quote from OSU Solar Decathlon Advisor, Mark Walter.